Learn Hardcore Hausa: Wayar Baba ta lalace jiya da dare. - Father’s phone got damaged last night.

Waya means phone.
When a noun in Hausa possesses another noun (like “Dad’s phone”), the first noun often takes a final -r or -n sound, depending on how it ends. This is sometimes called the “linker” or “genitive ending.”

waya (phone) → wayar Baba (Dad’s phone)

So wayar here is just waya in a possessive construction: wayar Baba = Baba’s phone.

Why does Baba come after wayar if it means “Dad’s phone”? In English we say “Dad’s phone”, not “phone Dad”.

In Hausa, the possessed thing usually comes first, and the owner comes after it:

wayar Baba = Dad’s phone (literally: “phone of Dad”)
motar Mama = Mom’s car (literally: “car of Mom”)

So the order is:

[Possessed thing] + [Possessor]

English often uses ’s or of, but Hausa just puts the nouns together with that -r / -n linker on the first noun.

What is the function of ta in ta lalace?

Ta is a subject pronoun (3rd person singular, feminine) that agrees with waya, which is grammatically feminine in Hausa.

waya = feminine noun → takes ta (she/it)
Wayar Baba ta lalace = Dad’s phone (it) broke / is ruined.

So ta here means “it” referring back to wayar Baba.

Why feminine? A phone doesn’t have gender in English.

In Hausa, all nouns have grammatical gender (masculine or feminine), regardless of natural gender. This is similar to languages like French or Spanish.

waya (phone) = feminine → uses ta
A masculine noun would normally use ya.

You just have to learn each noun’s gender; it doesn’t depend on any “real-world” gender.

Could we say Wayar Baba ya lalace instead of ta lalace?

No, that would be grammatically wrong because it breaks the agreement rule.

waya is feminine → must use ta
ya is the masculine 3rd person singular subject marker

So you should say:

Wayar Baba ta lalace. ✅
Wayar Baba ya lalace. ❌

What exactly does lalace mean? Is it “broke”, “spoiled”, “ruined”…?

Lalace comes from the verb lalacewa, which has the sense of:

to be damaged, ruined, spoiled, no longer in good working condition.

In the context of a phone:

Wayar Baba ta lalace ≈ Dad’s phone broke / got damaged / stopped working.

For something like food, ta lalace could mean “it has gone bad / spoiled.” Context decides the best English translation.

Is lalace a past tense form?

It’s better to think of ta lalace as a perfective / completed state, roughly “it got ruined / has become ruined / is ruined.”

The time is made explicit by jiya da dare (last night), so the whole sentence refers to a completed event in the past:

Wayar Baba ta lalace jiya da dare.
→ Dad’s phone (became) ruined last night.

What does jiya da dare literally mean?

jiya = yesterday
da = and / with
dare = night

So literally it’s “yesterday at night” or “yesterday night”, which in natural English we say as “last night.”

Could I just say jiya without da dare?

Yes, you can say:

Wayar Baba ta lalace jiya. = Dad’s phone broke yesterday.

Adding da dare is just more precise:

jiya = yesterday (any time)
jiya da safiya = yesterday morning
jiya da rana = yesterday during the day
jiya da dare = last night

Where is the word “Dad’s” in the Hausa sentence?

It’s expressed by the possessive structure wayar Baba:

Baba = father / dad
waya
- -r
  - Baba → wayar Baba = Baba’s phone / Dad’s phone

Hausa doesn’t use an ’s like English; it uses word order + the linker -r/-n to show possession.

Can Baba also mean “my father” here, or do I need Baba na?

Baba on its own means “father / dad” in a general sense, but in real conversations it can often imply “my dad” from context, especially when you’re talking about your own family.

Wayar Baba ta lalace jiya da dare.
In many contexts this will be understood as “My dad’s phone broke last night.”

If you want to be completely explicit:

Wayar Baba na ta lalace jiya da dare. = My father’s phone broke last night.
(Baba na = my father)

What is the basic word order in this sentence?

The structure is:

Wayar Baba – subject noun phrase (Dad’s phone)
ta – subject pronoun agreeing with wayar (it / she)
lalace – verb/predicate (broke, got ruined)
jiya da dare – time expression (last night)

So overall pattern:

[Subject] + [Agreement pronoun] + [Verb] + [Time]
Wayar Baba + ta + lalace + jiya da dare

If I wanted to say “The phone broke last night” without saying it’s Dad’s phone, what would I say?

You would remove Baba and just say:

Wayar ta lalace jiya da dare.
= The phone broke last night.

Here wayar can mean “the phone” (a specific phone already known in context), and ta still agrees with waya (feminine).

Is there any difference between ta lalace and something like ta karye?

Both describe damage but with slightly different nuances:

ta lalace – it is ruined / no longer in good condition / spoiled / not working
ta karye – it broke / snapped (physically broken into pieces or cracked)

For a phone:

Wayar Baba ta lalace. – It stopped working, got damaged.
Wayar Baba ta karye. – It physically broke (screen smashed, body broken, etc.).